[NABS-L] Students Reading Books From Learning Ally

[Curtis Chong]

Greetings everyone:

 

My name is Curtis Chong, and I have been a longtime member and leader in the
National Federation of the Blind. I am writing to this list to ask a
question and then to possibly raise an issue regarding Learning Ally and its
current stance regarding the new Victor Reader Stream's ability to play
books in the DAISY format from that worthy organization.

 

Question:         if you are a blind student today, do you find Learning
Ally to be a useful source for your textbooks, and do you use the original
or the second generation of the Victor Reader Stream to read your Learning
Ally books?

 

I have just purchased the new Victor Reader Stream 3. I am a lifetime member
of Learning Ally. I went to Learning Ally's Authorize a DAISY Player
<https://portal.learningally.org/Authorize-DAISY-Player>  page,
(https://portal.learningally.org/Authorize-DAISY-Player) to request a user
authorization key (UAK) for my new Stream. I kept receiving a message saying
that my serial number was not valid. When I contact Learning Ally Customer
Service, I was told that Learning Ally would not be supporting the latest
model of the Victor Reader Stream because of the relatively small number of
its members who read books in the DAISY format.

 

Now, if today's blind students no longer rely upon Learning Ally to get
their textbooks in an accessible format, I can be irritated with Learning
Ally because of its disservice to existing members. However, if there are no
longer any blind students who care, then this becomes a moot point. If, on
the other hand, blind students continue to rely on Learning Ally as one
source of accessible textbooks, then this becomes an issue which we all must
deal with.

 

If you want to communicate with me privately, I can be reached by email at
chong.curtis at gmail.com <mailto:chong.curtis at gmail.com>  and by phone at
515-306-1654.

 

I thank you all for your kind attention.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Curtis Chong